FOR THE FURTHER IMPLEMENTATION OF AN HIV and AIDS  SUPPORT PROGRAM IN OKAHANDJA

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Our aims and objectives:

We are committed to:

-          Restore hope and improve quality of life for people infected and affected by the HIV/Aids pandemic through home-based care; education about HIV/Aids and training

-          Sensitise the general public and promote positive attitudes towards people living with HIV/Aids and their families, to reduce the stigma of HIV/Aids, by providing correct information about HIV/Aids and positive speaking in the community

-          Encourage people living with HIV/Aids to join our self-help programmes (vegetable garden; needlework/upholstery group; tuck shop; charity shop ) and give on site training

-          Promote our self –help programs in the community by word-of-mouth, proposals and the media

-          To minimize suffering caused by HIV/Aids through material support (our soup kitchen) to clients and their families

-          To support other C.B.O’s initiatives, that respond to the Aids Pandemic, through advice and collaboration in order to reduce the transmission of HIV

-          To improve the ability of people living with HIV/Aids to cope with responsibilities;
empower them to make informed decisions about their lives; encourage them to live positively and die with dignity, by means of counseling services

-          To dispel the fears of family members about contracting HIV through casual contact;
facilitate care of infected and affected people and prepare and support the family during bereavement, by means of group counseling

-          To assist people who are infected and affected by HIV/Aids to find access to the necessary services, by referring them to organizations and services, where they can get additional help

What Do We Do?

-     The Home-Based Care Program is the main activity of the organization. Referrals from the local STD-Clinic and self-referrals are the main source for introducing new clients. Basic physical care and counseling are provided either at clients’ homes or at the office and confidentiality is of utmost importance. Each caregiver has her own “First Aid Kit”, that the MoHSS refill from time to time. Home-Based Caregivers are provided with survey forms they can complete when a client is in need of help from the Soup Kitchen. Our survey committee considers each application on merit and refers to the office for registration. These services have no time frame, because we cannot envision that the need will be eliminated in the foreseeable future. We also help clients to adhere to their ARV treatment, by checking their medicine and see to it that they get to the clinic in time for their new ARV supplies.

-          We opened our much needed soup kitchen in October 2006 with only 48 clients eating lunch on a Monday and Friday. Currently, we have 348 registered PLWHA we help through counseling and care and we provide 70 of them with lunch on a Monday and Friday and 50 others on a Wednesday. We unfortunately do not have the funding to feed everybody. Most of these clients are already on ARV’s and through these nutritious meals, we support them to adhere to their treatment. The meals consist of meat, vegetables, rice, macaroni, bread, and a drink of 500 ml and we vary the menu to prevent boredom, thus providing clients with the necessary  vitamins and minerals they need. Only clients that can prove their H.I.V+ status and their affected children, are enrolled into this program. Tendency soaring, a realistic estimate for end of  2008, would be at 200 PLWHA’S and 300 meals a week.

-    In conjunction with PharmAccess and the local State hospital, a clinic operates from our premises, providing baby formula
     and hampers to mothers and babies living with HIV/AIDS. We have a full time qualified nursing sister on the premises assisting 
     these needy clients

-     We operate an HIV/AIDS Information/Admin Office that is manned three times a week, from 8h00 to 17h00 by volunteers, to provide information on any aspect of HIV/Aids (within our capabilities) and pamphlets are distributed. Awareness Campaigns take place in co-operation with 5 other organizations in the community. The admin office registers H.I.V+ clients for the soup kitchen, collects membership fees (N$ 10.00 per H.B.Caregiver p.m.) which go towards day-to-day expenses and handles all matters regarding volunteers.

-     We organize regular Training Sessions, using our conference room (equipped by the U.S.Embassy), targeting new volunteers to be trained as Home-Based Caregivers and further training for already active Caregivers. We use two of our own Home-Based Caregivers, trained as trainers by the Catholic Aids Action to do the latter. We are proud to say we trained 10 new Home-Based Caregivers who graduated in March 2007 and another group of 10 will graduate before the end of this year. We’ve done “Disability Training” during  2006 through the MoHSS’s physiotherapist, as well as short training sessions, after we sent our Caregivers to workshops organized by N.A.N.A.S.O. Mrs.de Beer is training the admin staff on a regular basis, to improve the capability of the above  mentioned office. We have a great need for specialized training in monitoring and reporting – the Home-Based Caregivers are very willing, but lack writing and language skills. We had our first training session with SMA (Social Marketing Association) the end of January 2008. They do empowerment training for our Caregivers to become counsellers and start much needed support groups.

-          A Needlework Group has been established to keep clients busy and teach them skills. This group is active and is already producing articles they sell in the community. These funds (although still very small) proportionally go back to the group to buy supplies, a small incentive to the clients themselves and the rest towards the projects day-to-day expenses. The Lions Club donated a sewing machine and an overlocker towards this project.

-          The Vegetable Garden is well established and is expected to provide the soup kitchen with fresh produce. Clients and Home-Based Caregivers are working as a team to keep the present garden going. We have space to expand the garden and are planning on that for the next season.

-          The Charity Shop is manned by volunteers and is an income- generating activity for the

project. The Charity Shop sells second hand clothes for very reasonable prices to the surrounding community and clients. Secondhand clothes are collected from donors in Windhoek (maybe your staff can assist?)

The Okahandja Home-Based Caregivers Organization, thankfully, is run by volunteers (not receiving any allowances at this stage), which makes it so highly effective and what made survival, until now, possible.

Our vision for the future:

We have a vision of a sanctuary for our town, where all destitute HIV and AIDS patients can come to and be treated like respectable citizens, without any fear of discrimination. A place where they can come to learn a skill to provide for themselves and live a quality life, in spite of their illness!

Our logo says it all : 
We care!

Our Budget: 

The Home-Based Caregivers’ Office are run by volunteers, without remuneration until such time our incentives are profitable - in other words, once the vegetable garden project, the selling of the “E-pap” (at a small profit) and the secondhand clothes shop starts paying off. In the long run, workers at this office would have to earn a salary and these volunteers would definitely be first in line, when permanent staff will be appointed.

		Namibia Network of AIDS  Service Organization